Hope you like new stuff
With this patch we’re introducing the first new arena to the Combat Arena Alpha, as well as several new abilities and features. We’ve also included the standard slew of visual improvements, AI improvements, bug fixes, and balance changes you’ve come to expect. Check out the new stomping grounds, sprint till your stamina gives out, and proc your passive because- oh yeah, everyone has one of those now.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
New arena:
“A musky cave at the foot of the Abernaks. Once a popular sparring ground for local Kinfolk, it has long since fallen out of favor and into disrepair.”
With more room to fight, and a greater emphasis on verticality than any existing arena, Cavern introduces several new variables to consider in combat. Its rocky floor provides moderate cover overlooked by 3 central raised platforms, 2 adjoining catwalks, and 2 towers of scaffolding.
General Improvements
Added sprinting! Hold the shift key to begin sprinting but keep an eye on your stamina. Sprinting drains your stamina, and if you run out you’ll automatically stop sprinting. Tapping the Shift key still allows you to dash.
Added an offset to the camera so that the character doesn’t get in the way of the aiming reticle anymore.
You can now hover over a Kinfolk’s portrait in the team customization menu to view details about their Passive Ability.
Fixed some bugs in the settings page that made it difficult to bind your keys correctly.
Visual Improvements
Some adjustments have been made to the game’s lighting and post FX with the intention of improving color depth and dynamic range. These are still a work in progress, and further improvements will be added in a future patch. As a result, some arenas will likely appear slightly darker than usual for a short time.
Improved how Kinfolk with 2D faces change expressions so that transitions between expressions are smoother.
Health bars now maintain a constant scale, and are no longer obscured by objects in the scene.
Damage numbers also maintain a constant scale.
Added a spawning animation, and VFX for the ability Rock Wall. Destruction/time out animations and VFX will also be added in a future patch.
Characters no longer run in place while rooted or stunned.
Updated the appearance of minion health bars.
Reduced the excessive leaning that some characters experienced when attacking or aiming while moving.
Performance Improvements
Made several optimizations to ability logic to reduce performance impact.
The colliders for cone attacks like Startle and Roar have been simplified. In our testing, we saw that this helped reduce the impact that using these abilities had on performance, without affecting accuracy.
Balance CHANGES
General
Stat buffing and debuffing effects now expire after 30 seconds.
Stamina now only regenerates while on the ground.
Fling: Using Fling while midair now gives the user a slight boost of vertical momentum. This allows Slyphur to throw up to 3 items without touching the ground.
Howl: Kinfolk affected by the Fear status now cancel any attack they were aiming when they become Feared.
Rage: The user is now immune to crowd control effects during the attack.
Stunner Flies: Now finds a path around objects while chasing its target.
Slash: Colliders reach higher and lower, allowing the user to more easily hit shorter targets, and nearby airborne targets.
Crescent Strike: Colliders reach higher and lower, allowing the user to more easily hit shorter targets, and nearby airborne targets.
Rock Wall: The new activation animation and VFX cause Rock Wall to be slightly slower than the instantaneous speed it previously spawned in at.
Rockslide: Adjusted the height and timing at which rocks fall in order to be compatible with the Cavern arena. The fall height now adjusts dynamically based on the ceiling height. This also allows the timing to remain consistent regardless of the ceiling height.
Kinfolk
Skulken: Received the Intimidation Passive Ability, and exits their shielding animation more quickly.
Lumala: Exits their shielding animation more quickly.
Shovlet: Received the Survivor Passive Ability.
Embear: Received the Spirit of Fire Passive Ability.
New Abilities
All currently playable Kinfolk now have their Passive Abilities.
Spirit of Fire (Passive)
When the user has less than 1/3 of their max health remaining, all their Fire type Skill Shot, Lob, and Spawn attacks become 1.25 times larger.
Usable by Embear.
Survivor (Passive)
Each time the user enters combat, its HP cannot be reduced to 0 in a single hit.
Usable by Shovlet.
Intimidation (Passive)
When the user enters combat, it lowers the Physical Attack of hostile Kinfolk by 1 stage for 30 seconds.
Usable by Skulken.
Reflect
Null Type - Self Spawn. Base Power X, Damage Type X.
The user summons a large mirror prism around themselves, reflecting all ranged attacks, doubling their damage, and bouncing them back in the direction they came.
Usable by Mechid and Lumala.
New ???
And one more thing...
AI Improvements
AI Kinfolk now avoid each other while moving and attacking.
Made improvements to NPC AI that perform the intended attack more reliably in a wider range of frame rates.
AI Mechid is now more accurate with their basic melee attacks.
BUG FIXES
Fixed many bugs exclusive to the Cavern arena.
Fixed several bugs and unintended side effects caused by the introduction of the sprinting mechanic.
Fixed a bug that prevented users from naming their teams in the team customization menu.
Fixed a bug that caused many Kinfolk to use the wrong texture when taking damage.
Fixed a bug that caused the shielding animation to stutter for some characters.
Fixed a bug that caused the camera to have the wrong rotation after using Teleport.
Fixed a bug in most cases that caused Kinfolk to rotate and face the wrong direction when using dash attacks.
Fixed a bug that caused the spawn and lob attack reticles to jitter while aiming.
Fixed a bug that prevented homing attacks from working properly in the basic attack slot.
Fixed a bug that allowed Shovlet to fly when using Dig over the edge of a tall object.
Fixed a bug that caused Startle and Roar to not apply their debuffs.
Fixed a bug that allowed a Kinfolk using Pilfer to steal an item, even if they didn’t deal damage.
Fixed a bug that caused AI to sometimes get stuck in their suspicious state.
Fixed a bug in spectator mode that caused the spectator camera to spawn outside the map.
Fixed a bug that caused Kinfolk to begin floating while in their idle animation.
Fixed a bug that caused Kodoki to T-pose while shielding.
Fixed a crashed caused by the Soothing Aura passive.
Fixed a bug that caused dash attacks to linger longer than intended in certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug in spectator mode that prevented the user from controlling the camera and other features.
Fixed a bug in spectator mode that caused player two's UI for Kinfolk 2-4 to be backwards.
Known Issues
It is currently possible for Skulken’s rotation to become locked in certain circumstance while using Wither.
It is currently possible to become stuck in certain difficult to reach places in the Cavern Arena.
Certain areas of the Cavern arena are currently accessible that are not intended to be.
While a visualization is displayed when a Kinfolk has its stats raised or lowered, there is currently no visualization to display how much a Kinfolk’s stats have been raised or lowered. We plan to add visualizations to address this in a future patch.
When your party is revived after they all die in the Practice Room, the Kinfolk in your first slot is not revived.
Some of the visual effects for Crush are not properly displayed in the Practice Room.
The damage descriptions for several abilities that do not have Tick Damage, show a total Tick Damage amount.
Occasionally, players with low ping do not return to the current starting position between rounds.
Occasionally, attempting to cancel searching for a game results in the matchmaker locking up.
Often times teams can not be edited while searching for a game.
